Trustees look at forming finance sub-committee

The Butler Community College Trustees looking at ways the Audit Committee and new Finance Subcommittee could be combined

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By Kari Adams

Butler County Times Gazette

By Kari Adams

Posted Jan. 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM

By Kari Adams

Posted Jan. 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM

El Dorado

The Butler Community College Board of Trustees met on Tuesday evening to discuss the need for a new committee to aid the Trustees in the understanding of the financial situations of the college.

"We spoke before about setting up a finance sub-committee," began President Kim Krull. "We did talk about it and floated some ideas to the board at a prior meeting.

"One of the things the college clubs and committees do here is a formation of a team charter. It identifies the responsibilities of the committee and how often they're going to meet as well as their ultimate goals and expectations."

They are looking at ways the Audit Committee and new Finance Subcommittee could be combined.

"Nothing needs to be decided tonight," Krull said. "The charter can evolve once we begin to really get into this process."

"When I was reviewing the packet," said Vice President for Finance Kent Williams, "my first thought was 'can these be combined?' I think it's a possibility, but there would probably need to be extended meetings. The audit committee meets four times a year. On those four months we might need to have an extended meeting."

Not all of the Trustees were in agreement of what the committee's purpose would be.

"I envisioned something little bit different," explained Trustee Jim Howell. "I envisioned something that was more of an aid in decision making for a project, the budget, changing programs or services that would have some sort of an impact. I envisioned a committee that would work with us to create reports to let us know what is going on. They would report to us to help us make decisions. It would help us as a board to let us kind of get our arms around it so that we might be able to make a more informed decision about these things. We would be able to better understand the financial impact of these decisions that are made.

"I feel like some of the decisions I make, there are a lot of areas I don't know about. This is the stuff which is really important to me and I would like to make informed decisions. This would be much more than just an audit committee."

If the purpose of the committee is changed, the committee will require much more frequent meetings in order to stay on top of key issues.

"If we're moving forward from here, we're going to be looking at meeting at least once a month no matter what," said Trustee Candace Kunkel.

"This is just a starting point," added Krull. "We'll probably move forward with some conference calls being set up so that we can pull some of this together."

"We'll continue to move in this general direction for the discussion in our next meeting," added Trustee Chair Ron Englebrecht.

Page 2 of 2 - The discussion was ended without any action.

On another item, the board opened the discussion once again to note the changes to the Notice Up Letter for the 2014-15 Mutual Gains Bargaining. The document, which contains a list of items for consideration during the mutual gains bargaining process was presented for consideration to the Trustees by Director of Human resources Vicki Long.

"We're in the third year of a three-year contract," explained Long. "We've had a multi-year contract for several years now. The main changes that we will be facing with this letter will be various language changes as well as title and name changes."

It was discussed if a contract longer than three years would be a plausible goal.

Also, Trustee Jim Howell questioned the overall need to approve the language changes for the letter.

"I think there's an understanding that a lot of the discussion in the meetings is confidential so that people remain comfortable discussing key items and issues," said Krull.

Without further discussion, Englebrecht motioned to approve the Notice Up Letter. The motion carried 5-0.

The board also:

• approved a board self-evaluation process and form.

• approved the purchase of vehicles from the 2014 State Motor Vehicle Contract.

• approved the 2014-2015 High School Articulation Agreements for Career Pathways.

• approved the appointment of Lai-L Clemons as assistant director of admissions.